The United States on Wednesday placed India, China, Russia and four other countries on its annual Priority Watch List for intellectual property (IP) protection and enforcement.

The other countries that have been put on the list issued by the Office of the US Trade Representative are Argentina, Chile, Indonesia and Venezuela. All seven countries on this year’s list were on last year’s too.

In its Special 301 Report on the adequacy and effectiveness of US trading partners’ protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPRs), US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said that these countries would be the subject of particularly intense bilateral engagement during the coming year.

Twenty trading partners are on the Watch List, and merit bilateral attention to address underlying IP problems – Algeria, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Guatemala, Mexico, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

The Special 301' Report is an annual review of the global state of IP protection and enforcement. USTR reviewed more than 100 trading partners for this year’s Special 301 Report.

“The review of Ukraine has been suspended due to Russia’s premeditated and unprovoked further invasion of Ukraine in February 2022," according to a press release issued by the USTR.